She’s the incumbent, he’s the challenger. Their plans for Beaufort Co. council
In the Republican primary for the Beaufort County Council District 8 seat, retired U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lt. Col. Kraig Gordon is challenging incumbent Paula Brown, who has held her seat since 2023.
District 8 includes Hilton Head Plantation, Moss Creek and other parts of Bluffton north of Fording Island Road directly west of Hilton Head.
Brown, a Bluffton resident, worked in investment and international banking and as a legal assistant. Gordon is retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and also owns his own construction, land and building development and distribution companies. He lives in Bluffton’s Belfair neighborhood.
Here’s what Brown and Gordon had to say about some of the top issues facing Beaufort County.
The biggest challenges
Brown said “our roads and traffic lights” are the biggest issues facing Beaufort County right now. The best way to deal with the county’s growing population and the infrastructure issues that come with it, she said, is to vote no for upzoning, and the council has done that, she said.
Gordon said the most pressing issues facing Beaufort County are uncontrolled growth, failing and delayed infrastructure, affordability and declining public trust in county government. In District 8, residents have grown increasingly frustrated with “a County Council that repeatedly fails to deliver results,” he said.
“When residents see repeated project delays, developments approved without adequate infrastructure and a pattern of broken promises, it naturally leads to declining public trust,” he said. “People feel their tax dollars are being wasted and their quality of life is being sacrificed for unchecked growth.”
Public trust
Beaufort County has dealt with issues surrounding public trust after the tenure of former administrator Eric Greenway, who was fired by council two years into his five-year contract for alleged failure to follow the statutes on hiring outside contractors and his disregard for the county’s procurement process, council said at the time. Most recently, county CFO Pinky Harriott left her job right in the middle of budget season with no explanation.
In response to a question about how she would rebuild public trust between the county and its citizens, Brown said “citizens of Beaufort County trust me.”
“Because of the trust from residents of Beaufort County, children in public schools are now eating fresh grown food from local farmers,” she said.
Gordon said public trust in Beaufort County government has eroded because of years of dysfunction, instability and a lack of cohesive leadership. He said he has spoken directly with county employees who report high turnover and low morale because they’re being pulled in conflicting directions by council members, he said.
The county is diverse and includes people from a wide range of income levels, but Gordon said he thinks too often, competing special interest groups and priorities dominate decision-making. He said his construction, engineering and business experience make him well-suited to tackle critical infrastructure needs.
“We need council members with the right education, professional experience and leadership skills to effectively oversee a $200 million county operation,” he said. “Without that, we get chaos, poor oversight, finger-pointing and repeated failures like unexplained high-level departures and broken promises to taxpayers.”
Development versus cultural preservation
The county has long fought with the developer of a proposed golf course development on Pine Island, which sits on historic Gullah-Geechee land protected by a Cultural Protection Overlay.
In areas without a CPO, like Hilton Head Island, Gullah-Geechee residents have expressed frustration that their land seems to be the first to go when there’s a new proposed development or road extension. Beaufort County is constantly grappling with the question of how it can serve infrastructure needs while also accounting for the needs of Gullah-Geechee people whose families have been here for generations.
The latest in the Pine Island saga is a lawsuit filed by the developer claiming the CPO on St. Helena Island is “unconstitutional on its face” because it favors one race “at the inherent expense of others.” It asks for an order ending enforcement of the CPO.
Brown said she could not comment on the latest Pine Island lawsuit, because the matter is ongoing. In the past, she has voted for the project; she was one of two council members voting in favor of a zoning map amendment that would remove the land from a culturally-protected zone in June 2023. In December 2025, she and three other council members voted in favor of undoing the county’s original vote that stopped the development.
Gordon said the human cost of not properly managing uncontrolled growth is obvious. He mentioned the late Josephine Wright, a 94-year-old Gullah grandmother in Jonesville on Hilton Head, who spent her final years fighting developers who tried to take her family’s land for a large townhouse project. Wright posthumously won a settlement with the construction company that wanted her land, according to the Guardian.
“Her courageous stand reminded all of us what is truly at stake,” he said.
Gordon said the Mitchelville Preservation Project and Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park created by the Town of Hilton Head and Beaufort County are important efforts protecting and interpreting the site of America’s first self-governed freedmen’s town. Officials also need to be more thoughtful on projects like the U.S. 278 corridor improvements, which directly impact the historic Stoney community and other longtime Gullah neighborhoods, he said.
“I support the county’s annual funding for Gullah-Geechee cultural and land protection efforts and believe we should expand these commitments,” Gordon said.
Why them?
Brown said she was responsible for stopping 5B, a road extension that would have made Bluffton Parkway continuous, rather than the current configuration where drivers have to briefly ride on Buckwalter Parkway. 5B died at the county level in 2024.
Gordon said he always opposed 5B, because he “firmly believed it failed to meet sound engineering standards, common sense planning principles and the best interests of our communities.” He said Brown originally supported 5B before changing her position later.
Brown said she’s responsible for putting 400 acres in the district into green space, and is working on 300 more. She also assisted some Belfair residents with voter registration cards so they can vote in their neighborhood, and helped Cherry Point residents say no to the first development of 300 homes on 71 acres in their neighborhood.
Gordon is the chair of the Beaufort County Transportation Committee and has been actively involved in the Lowcountry Area Transportation Study for more than three years. He’s also been on the ground working on Hilton Head’s roads, resurfacing Palmetto Bay Road from the bridge to the Traffic Circle, plus more.
This year, he said, “we are paving Marblehead Road, Island Drive, Ned Court, Pensacola Place, Burkes Beach Road and Bow Circle.”